Indian Men’s football team will be traveling to Vietnam to play two friendlies, one against Singapore on 24th September and the hosts on 27th September, in the tri-nation Hung Thinh Friendly Football Tournament for the preparation of the AFC Asian CUP 2023. The champions of the round-robin meet will receive prize money of $ 30,000, the runners-up side will take home $ 20,000. The third place too carries prize money of $ 10,000. A list of 23 players is drawn for the tour.
The new technical committee of the All Indian Football Federation (AIFF) decided to extend head coach Igor Stimac’s contract until the Asian Cup in 2023 following India’s successful and consecutive qualification, for the first time, to the tournament earlier this year. These friendlies will be the last set of international games the Indian Men’s Senior National team will play in 2022.
Indian Men’s Football Team Squad
Goalkeepers: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem and Amrinder Singh.
Defenders: Sandesh Jhingan, Roshan Singh Naorem, Anwar Ali, Akash Mishra, Chinglensana Singh Konsham, Harmanjot Singh Khabra and Narender Gahlot.
Midfielders: Liston Colaco, Muhammed Ashique Kuruniyan, Deepak Tangri, Udanta Singh Kumam, Anirudh Thapa, Brandon Fernandes, Yasir Mohammad, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Sahal Abdul Samad, Rahul Kannoly Praveen and Lallianzuala Chhangte.
Forwards: Sunil Chhetri and Ishan Pandita.
Coach Stimac had to consider club form and a series of injuries into account before naming the 23-member squad list. Vikram Pratap Singh was initially included in the 24 players list but withdrew from the camp due to an injury. Laxmikant Kattimani, Prabhsukhran Gill, Rahul Bheke, Suresh Singh and Rahim Ali were in the coach’s eyes for selection but all are struggling with injuries. Notably, some national team regulars over the years are stripped from selection owing to their lack of form in the club level. Most of them ply their trade for ATK Mohun Bagan with Ashish Rai, Subhasish Bose, Pritam Kotal and Manvir Singh missing out. Mumbai City’s Apuia Ralte is surprisingly not included despite playing for the club in the recently concluded Durand Cup including the final.
Captain Sunil Chettri has the chance to overtake Ferenc Puskas in the all-time highest international goal-scorers chart having scored the same amount of goals as the Hungarian great (84).
Fixtures
Singapore vs India - Saturday, 24 September 2022
Vietnam vs India - Tuesday, 27 September 2022
India will play their first friendly against Singapore, ranked 159th in FIFA rankings way below the Blue Tiger’s 104th. Hosts Vietnam, 97th in the rankings, will pose a much sterner test on paper in the second game as India looks to produce a positive outcome from this tour for an ideal preparation for the AFC Asian Cup 2023.
